UK banks need to invest more in their IT systems and improve their board-level oversight following a series of digital outages, MPs have said.

Treasury Select Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie has written a letter to the banks and regulators, which stated: “Every few months we have yet another IT failure at a major bank. These IT blunders and weaknesses are exposing millions of people to uncertainty, disruption and sometimes distress. Businesses suffer, too. We can’t carry on like this.”

Customers of major High Street banks including RBS and Barclays have been hit by digital blackouts over recent years, the latest being a two-day outage at HSBC earlier this month. Tyrie also suggested that banks should appoint more board directors with a knowledge of IT, and that financial regulators needed to take greater oversight of the situation.

“Bank IT systems don’t appear to be up to the job,” he continued. “This brings with it not just conduct risk, but also systemic risk. Someone – probably the head of the PRA, needs to assume a leadership role, bring together those most involved among regulators and government agencies, and ensure that there are improvements at the banks. Until these are made, the public will remain more exposed than necessary to the risks of banking failures, including delays in paying bills, an inability to obtain their own money, and unauthorised access to their accounts.”

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